


PMD: Phantoms From Our Past

by Where_is_my_Hat



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Genre: Alternate Universe, Axew Partner, Blood, Drama, Elements of cosmic horror, Fantasy, Froakie Main Character, Gen, Guilds no longer exist, Human, Human main character, Industrialized World, Language, Occasional strong language and violence, Original Character(s), Shinx Partner, Trippy Dungeons, Violence, Water Type Main Character, dark themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:49:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29472738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Where_is_my_Hat/pseuds/Where_is_my_Hat
Summary: The golden age of explorers is long since over. Guilds are no more, humans and mystery dungeons are mere myths, and the world has moved into an age of industrialization and war. A human with a rebellious spirit is thrown into this strange world as a froakie, his memories stripped from him. He sets out to recover them, but sometimes it’s best to leave the past buried.
Kudos: 2





	1. Dreams

The man floated aimlessly in the void. Unmoving, just letting the vast, endless abyss embrace him. In the warm comfort of the abyss's arms, he was finally happy. Unfortunately, every dream has to end at some time.

"Wake up." A smooth yet raspy voice called out.

The man stirred slightly and slowly opened his eyes, yet he wasn't greeted by any light, only black. He tried to move and look around but it was as if he had no body, or had forgotten how to move. Panic began to set in.

"Easy. Don't get into a twist. You are in no real danger." The raspy voice boomed into the silent abyss. "Now I'm going to need you to answer some questions."

The man honestly didn't want to do anything really. He yearned to go back into that coma-like state he was just in a moment ago. But fine, he would play along with this strange dream to see where it goes. "Fine..." he responded reluctantly.

"Good. Now let's start with a simple one. What is your name?" The voice echoed around the empty void.

The man started to feel uncomfortable. He knew the answer, of course, but he didn't know if he wanted to give it to the being. "Kaz... My name is Kaz." It was actually his nickname, but he thought it would satiate the voice.

It was silent for what seemed like hours, even if it was only a couple of seconds.

"Kaz... a strange name for sure but fitting nonetheless. Now, let's say you, theoretically, move to a new home, but it's not ideal. Crime rate is high, poverty is high, but you don't have a choice. You were lucky you weren't thrown out onto the street."

Kaz was silent while the voice spoke. He began to wonder where the voice was going with this question.

"Your mother tells you to go outside and do something. You choose to go bike riding. About a mile away from your house, a man with a mask holds you at knifepoint." The voice continued. "He is demanding you give him your bike. What do you do?"

Kaz was highly confused. Why would this being want to know something like that?

"I would give him the bike. I'm not about to die because I was too proud to let him have it." Kaz replied with slight confusion in his voice.

"Smart choice. Material goods will never be as valuable as a life right? Well, most lives are worth preserving anyway." The entity let the statement hang in the air for a bit before continuing. "Moving on. You arrive at your school the next day to find a person riding your bike. But it's a boy about your age, not the man from yesterday. What do you do about it?"

Kaz was becoming increasingly unnerved. What did this thing want? Why was it asking such strange questions?

"I suppose... I suppose I would take it back." He said. "I can't show weakness in such a bad area. And besides, it was my bike, not his!" He concluded with passion.

The entity was silent once again. This time it was much longer though. It let Kaz think for a moment. He wasn't a lucid dreamer. He never remembered what he dreamt about when he awoke. The entire place was beginning to feel off to the young man. Though no matter how hard he tried he couldn't piece together why.

"Of course." The voice broke the silence at last. "I'm sure the boy would be incredibly scared of you. I bet he would just fall to his knees and beg for mercy!" The voice sneered, every word dripping in sarcasm.

Something was wrong. Despite seemingly having no body, Kaz managed to feel the temperature drop and cold air nipped at his skin. He no longer wanted to be in this black abyss anymore.

"Onward we go then." The thing's voice almost giddy with excitement. "You are handed a knife. What do you do with it?"

Something quickly moved at the edges of his vision. Something was wrong. Noises were coming from all around him and yet nowhere at once. Kaz was like a helpless fawn just waiting to be devoured by a pack of wolves.

"W-what kind of question is that?! Who even are you!?" The panicked and terrified Kaz asked.

"You should know the answer to both those questions." The cosmic monstrosity said with extreme malice. Kaz could almost hear the smirk it was giving him.

The inky black that spanned for all eternity finally broke when a red orb appeared in front of him.

"Jacob, do you know how happy I am to see you again? How long I've waited for this to finally happen?" The orb spoke with an almost joyous voice.

Jacob was too terrified to care about what the thing was even talking about. He needed to leave, to be anywhere but where he was now.

Four red tendrils began to slowly emerge from the nebulous orb. "Words aren't enough to describe what I'm going to do to you. You will know pain beyond anything a mortal can even understand." The red tendrils all slithered through the air towards Jacob. "Death is not a mercy here." The tendrils flung themselves towards the human.

Jacob couldn't look away before the tendrils drilled into his flesh. Except they never did. One was about an inch away from his eye, but they just suddenly froze in place, as if somebody paused time.

Then the orb began to flail and let out some inhuman, alien scream. Jacob felt something drag him backwards into the abyss, but he passed out a second later, still hearing those utterly indescribable cries of pain etch themselves into his mind.


	2. Off To A Great Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A shinx runs into the forest to clear his head, only to run into a certain human, or better put, froakie.

A light drizzle tarnished what was otherwise a beautiful spring evening. A small catlike animal made its way through the dense underbrush of a lush forest, jumping over fallen logs and ducking beneath low hanging branches. Riley halted over a ledge that overlooked a beautiful and pristine valley.

The small creature folded its ears down and sighed to itself. That spot was where he would go to clear his head or relax and forget all the issues the world threw at him, even if only for a brief moment. Nobody to bother him, nobody to judge him, nobody to scold him. He was free there.

So it was unfortunate that the rain decided to ruin the beauty of the nature below, instead making it eerie and depressing. He wasn't surprised though. Riley's luck was rather infamous with his peers.

The feline suddenly heard a quiet groan to his left. Quickly turning toward the noise, he arched his back and unsheathed his claws. He wasn't going to take any chances, especially with bandits becoming an increasingly large issue. But when saw who made the noise, he became confused. What in the world was a froakie doing that far into the forest, and why was it just laying there?

"I'm going to regret this aren't I?" He mumbled to himself. He slowly approached the unmoving form. "Hey, are you okay froakie?" He asked in a cheery tone. No response. He was close enough to see the froakie's chest rising up and down, so at least they were alive.

Closing the gap between him and the frog, he reached out a paw and poked it. Still nothing. "Hey, are you hur-AHH!" The frog sprang up from where it had been lying, causing the feline to reel back and trip over. The shinx rushed to get back up on its feet, ready to fight if he had to. The frog was having a coughing fit and it took a good thirty or so seconds to clear up.

The froakie looked around with a look of confusion on its face. The shinx eased slightly, if the frog was intending to harm him, he probably would've done so already. "Hey, can I help you?" The frog turned around and met his eyes, but the amphibian's widened in shock.

Kaz must've misheard the meow of the cat in front of him for an actual voice, as he knew that talking animals didn't exist. Only crazy people thought otherwise. The more he looked over the cub, however, the more he began to think maybe he was becoming a bit loony.

The lion cub was abnormally colored for starters. Its front half was a shade of sky blue with golden fur wrapping around its front ankles like a bracelet. Its back half was entirely black, but the most curious thing about the animal was its tail. It had some sort of golden star-like thing on the tip of it.

If Kaz didn't know any better, he would say that thing was giving him a look. But not just any look. No, it was a human look. As if it wanted to say something but didn't think it should.

"Soooooo... are you ok?" It was official, he was completely mad. The human just gawked at him for another moment before letting the abyss take him once again.

The shinx was once again alone, processing what in the world just happened. What the heck was wrong with that froakie? He poked it once again to see if it would get back up, but it just laid there. The shinx groaned to himself in frustration and dragged his ears over his face. He had come here to relax and forget everything for a few hours, but no, a dumb frog was forcing him to carry them into town and find the doctor.

It took a good minute or two of awkward repositioning and movement before he managed to get the frog over and onto his back. Riley took a deep breath before shooting off back into the forest trying his damndest not to lose balance and trip and injure the both of them.


	3. The Doctor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “If only pecha berries weren’t so rare.” That’s something the town doctor tells herself as she desperately tries to find anything that can cure the town of food poisoning. Unfortunately for her, a certain duo puts her plans on hold when they arrive at her doorstep.

The feminine, humanoid creature moved frantically between different medicine cabinets, opening and searching through each. She cursed under her breath. Of course she didn't have enough pecha berries the one time they were actually needed. Most of the time when she was asked to give someone a berry, it was usually some kid feigning a stomach ache or illness, truly desiring it for its famously (or infamously) sweet and delicious taste. Trying to avoid the wrath of a deceived parent, she would cave and hand it over, a decision that came back to bite her in the rear end.

She had held barely herself back from slapping Ricker the Infernape across the face when he was forced by his wife to admit that he accidentally poisoned half the damn town by serving spoiled apples. The silver lining was the high probability his spouse did it for her.

She looked through the final cabinet, praying to Arceus, Mew, and any other deity she could think of that something remained. Nothing. It took an unimaginable amount of willpower out of her to keep her from screaming in frustration. She stomped over to her desk and pulled the chair out from underneath, it letting out a screeching noise as it was dragged along the wooden floor. She slumped down into the seat, taking slight comfort in the bright sunlight beaming through the window next to her, and began rubbing her forehead to ease the headache that had snuck up on her. "Breathe." She said under her breath, recalling one of her mentor's numerous teachings.

‘Frustration and stress impairs one's judgment. Letting the stress fester will only do harm to yourself and your patient. Take deep breaths, and with every exhale, let out your negative emotions and energy.’ Her memories of his ever calm and soothing voice echoed in her head.

"Seygar..." the gardevoir mumbled to herself. "You were taken from us too soon." What she would give to see him again; but now wasn't the time to reminisce. She knew her mentor would've wanted her to use his memory to fuel her resolve, not mope about his passing.

Pecha berries. She needed to find pecha berries. It was a shame that none of the surrounding wilderness held any, and considering she lived in a valley surrounded by towering mountains as far as the eye could see, merchants were a rare occurrence. Sure there was a small settlement up in the mountains filled with ice types, but they enjoyed their privacy. In fact, it was so private and remote, not a single pokemon in Oaktown knew its actual name.

Explorers from ages long since passed would supposedly descend into the nearby cave system to find supplies that sustained the town. 'Mystery Dungeons' they were called. Strange rifts in time and space that caused an affected area to warp and change in strange ways. No two visits would ever have the same layout. They also seemed to have had the power to create items out of thin air, seeing as how the explorers were said to 'farm' them every time they would change layouts. If the myths really were true, then that 'magic' was certainly gone now. Nothing but winding tunnels and sharp drops were all that remained. It would have been a lie to say that she couldn't have used one of those mythical labyrinths right now.

As she saw it, there were two options. Hope that in the next 24 hours a merchant or somebody stocked with berries came through town, which was almost a guarantee not to happen. The other option was to trek up to the small settlement up in the mountains and pray to Arceus that their doctor (If they even had one) was kind enough to lend some of his stock. Waiting wasn't an option, but she couldn't just leave the office unattended either. The sudden loud frantic banging on her door suddenly jolted her from her thoughts.

—————————————————————————————

Riley eagerly waited for a response from Elizabeth. He paced back and forth in front of the door, the weight of him and the froakie slumped over his back causing the old wooden boards of the porch to creak. No response. He knocked as hard as he could.

"Elizabeth? Are you in there?" He called out desperately in hopes of getting her attention. He got his attention in the form of almost getting smacked in the face by the door flying open. Elizabeth was standing there, looming over him with a miffed look on her face.

"Riley how many times do I have to-" Elizabeth paused and her face softened, eyes looking past Riley and locked onto the froakie. "Follow me." She commanded him, turning around and walked with urgency to a room in the back. Shutting the door behind him, Riley chased after her.

"Was he like this when you found him?" The doctor asked in a calm but urgent tone. "Hand him to me." She demanded, not waiting for his answer.

"Well to answer your question..." Riley began as Elizabeth gently took the comatose frog from his back and set him on a cot in the corner of the room. "Yes, he was unconscious when I got there." He shook his body to fluff his matted fur. "But he woke up, stared at me with a weird look, and when I asked if he was ok, he just passed out again."

"Interesting..." Elizabeth was checking over the froakie's body while listening to Riley. "No cuts. No abrasions. Perhaps a bit underweight." She put two fingers on the froakie's wrist and looked at the clock. "Pulse seems normal for an unconscious pokemon of his type." A pinkish-red aura appeared around one of the knobs of the cabinet, another of said aura appearing around a thermometer in the back as it levitated into the air. Riley watched on as it was pulled out and gracefully led to the fairy's open hand. Opening the froakie's mouth with one hand, she put the thermometer under his tongue. After a tense few moments, she spoke. "Temperature is normal by water type standards." She turned to head back to her desk, almost walking into Riley on her way over. She opened the drawer, pulled a page of paper out, dipped a pidgeot quill in some ink, and began writing on the paper.

Riley shuffled a bit in discomfort from the awkwardness brewing in the air. He wanted to speak up and say something, but he didn't want to be the one to find out what would happen if her work flow was broken.

Her quill came to an abrupt halt. "Where did you say you found him?" She inquired, never looking up from the paper.

"On a cliff edge overlooking the valley. I... I think it was north of here?"

Elizabeth's face scrunched up, not attempting to hide her annoyance at the cub's inattentiveness. She lifted her eyes from the paper and looked back at the cub. "Which direction did you come from?"

Riley put a forepaw to his chin and looked up, taking perhaps a bit too long to think of an answer. "I think it was that way." The cat pointed directly behind him with his thumb.

Elizabeth looked back down at the table. "So you were correct." She jotted down some more words before dipping her quill in the ink again and stopping. "Do you know if anyone else was around? Were there any footprints or feathers lying around or anything else suggesting someone else was there?"

"Not unless you count some pidgeys." Elizabeth turned to him with a look of umbrage.

"Are you sure?"

Riley sat back with his chest puffed out and saluted to her. "Ma'am, yes ma'am." The gardevoir responded with a roll of her eyes.

"I guess all we can do now is wait." She said with a flat tone while moving her chair next to the cot and sitting down, eyes not leaving the amphibian. Riley looked over the gardevoir's face, finding he was unable to read her unchanging expression.

"So... is he gonna be fine?" Riley carefully sliced through the awkward silence. She looked up at him then back at the amphibian.

"His skin is somewhat dry leading me to believe he's slightly dehydrated. Also a little thin but just within acceptable standards. Give him some food and water and a day or two of rest and he will be fine." She said while never taking her eyes off the froakie.

Riley let out a massive sigh of relief upon hearing that. "There is just one thing I can't wrap my head around." Riley looked up at the fairy, waiting for her to continue. "What in Arceus's name was he doing out here? No froakies or their evolutions live here and there isn't a way in Giratina's hellscape that he would survive alone in the mountains."

Riley gave her statement some thought. "Maybe he was traveling through here and got lost?"

"Possible but unlikely. There is a chance he could've been separated from a group of other pokemon, but then why have we not seen them yet? The only trail through these mountains goes straight through our town and he was found... around a mile away from here?" She looked up at Riley who nodded. "So unless they came close enough to drop him and for some unexplainable reason turned right around and left, it doesn't add up." She stared for a long time at the frog before speaking again.

"He appears to be in his mid to late teens, which means he might still be under the supervision of his parents if I'm correct." Riley gave her a look of curiosity. "So there are three possibilities. Either he's an incredibly moronic Pokémon who thought it was a good idea to go looking for treasure around here and got lost, a runaway and /or orphan, or we are housing a fugitive."

"What?! What will happen to me then?! Will I be made a criminal?! Oh no, what if he's my cellmate?! What i-" Riley's muzzle was promptly shut by psychic energy.

"Look Riley you did the right thing in bringing him here. If he is truly innocent, you just saved his life. If he is a criminal... well a froakie isn't going to do much to Officer Franklin." The psychic energy dissipated.

Riley's eyes started beaming. "I... saved a life? Oh my gosh, I'm just like those heroes-" Riley squeaked as he felt a force pick him up by the scruff of his neck into the air and steal him out of the room. He was taken before the door to the outside, it suddenly opened. He was suddenly flung outside onto the dirt path, The loud bang of the door slamming resonated from behind him.

"I'm sure your mother wants to hear that more than I do." Elizabeth's telepathic voice echoed through his head. Riley got back up and shook the dirt and gravel out of his fur before he harrumphed. He would prove all of his doubters wrong, he just knew it.


End file.
